Gold to Iran, Silver to India, Bronze to Russia and my assessment of Maghsoodloo

World Junior Chess Championship is an 11-round Open Swiss Chess Tournament

The battle for Gold at the 2018 World Junior Chess Championship was decided with one round to go. But the battles for Silver and Bronze were still up in the air. In spite of beating the tournament winner GM Maghsoodloo in the final round, GM Esipenko only finished 4th in tiebreaks as the Silver went to GM Puranik of India, and Bronze to IM Lobanov of Russia.

In spite of losing in the final round, I think the strength and ambition of the Iranian phenom GM Maghsoodloo was clearly highlighted. He did not "play safe" for a draw like most would do. He fought with black to win. This is very important even though he did not succeed. It is clear that there is no fear in him and this is why I said that with right training, opportunity, and support, he will break 2700 very soon, and has the potential to be a top 10 player in the world in the near future.

Maghsoodloo is one of the biggest talents I have seen since Wesley So, who was stuck in the mid 2600's for 3 years, until he arrived at Webster University - SPICE chess program to train with me. In 2 years with proper professional training and the well known SPICE discipline & training regiment, So's chess rating jumped 110 points and he went from around the 100 mark in the world to top 10 in 2 years, then shortly after that reached #2. It is important for young players to have the right training and support to succeed and reach their full chess potentials.

The 2018 World Junior Chess Championship is an 11-round Swiss chess open taking place in Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey from September 5-15, 2018.

The winner becomes the World Junior Chess Champion, receives 3,000 euros, and the GM title.

2nd and 3rd place chess players receive the IM title.

The time control is 90 minutes for 40 chess moves then 30 minutes to the end of the chess game, with a 30-second increment from move 1. No draw offers are allowed until move 30 so we can expect fighting chess.